The He 280 harnessed the progress made by Hans von Ohain's novel gas turbine propulsion and by Ernst Heinkel's work on the He 178, the first jet-powered aircraft in the world.

During the summer of 1940, the first prototype airframe was completed; however, it was unable to proceed with powered test flights due to development difficulties with the intended engine, the HeS 8.

The lack of state support delayed engine development, thus setting back work on the He 280; nevertheless, it is believed that the fighter could have been made operational earlier than the competing Messerschmitt Me 262, and offered some advantages over it.

[4][5] However, an aerial demonstration of the He 178 had apparently failed to interest attending officials from the Reichsluftfahrtministerium (RLM) (the German Reich Aviation Ministry) either in the aircraft itself or jet propulsion in general.

[6][7] Unknown to Heinkel, the Reich Air Ministry had already begun work on discretely developing its own jet technology independently of his company's efforts.

[11][12] The project was greatly aided by the earlier He 178 programme, which had not only served as a proof of concept but also yielded invaluable data gathered from flight testing;[13] however, the design of the He 178 was deemed to be unsuitable for further development; particularly as mounting the engine within the fuselage had been judged to be impractical.

[14] Despite its novel propulsion, the design had adopted numerous relatively orthodox features, such as a typical Heinkel fighter fuselage, semi-elliptical wings, and a dihedralled tailplane with twin fins and rudders.

After landing, Schäfer reported to Heinkel that, while somewhat difficult to exercise control during turns, an experienced pilot would have an easy time flying the He 280.

[20] On 5 April 1941, Paul Bader performed an exhibition flight before various Nazi officials, including Ernst Udet, General-Ingenieur Lucht, Reidenbach, Eisenlohr and others.

Bad weather caused the aircraft to ice up before the jets could be tested; the situation led to pilot Helmut Schenk becoming the first person to put an ejection seat to use.

[15] Less than two weeks later, on 27 March, Erhard Milch, Inspector-General of the Luftwaffe, ordered Heinkel to abandon work on the He 280 to instead focus his company's attention on bomber development and construction.

[25] The aviation authors Tim Heath and Robert Dorr both note that, in light of Heinkel having become unpopular amongst influential Nazis while Willy Messerschmitt was a favoured figure, there were political factors at play in the cancellation of the He 280.